CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES

Psalm 14:1 "The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God"

All articles are written in the
NKJV, unless otherwise noted! All articles are written by David Hicks,
unless specified otherwise.

THE CREATION

DAY SEVEN:

Psalm 33:6-7 "By the word of the LORD the
heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His
mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea
together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses."

Hebrews 4:4 "For He has spoken in a certain
place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the
seventh day from all His works”"

Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do
all your work, 10
but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work:
you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female
servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your
gates. 11 For in six days the LORD
made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and
hallowed it."

Mark 2:27 "And He said to them, “The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."

Seventh Creative
Day:

On this, the seventh day,
God would cease His creative work. Everything is complete, He has determined
that all the creation and work of His hand has matched and exemplified His
Divine will. In this last day of creation, God will demonstrate a Divine
Sabbath (only as a teaching tool - we will elaborate more about this later),
and the blessings of rest.

Text:

Genesis 2:1-3 "Thus the heavens and the earth,
and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended
His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His
work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had
created and made."

Host: Verse one is a summary of the previous six
days work. It is stated that God created the heavens (necessary for light,
signs, seasons, and measured time) and the earth (the home for the special
creation of man), and all the host of them. The host of them, describes the
entire creation of life on the earth.

This is where the term
"God of hosts" is derived; however, it is not limited to
the hosts of earth. The term "host" is from the Hebrew, "Tsebaam"
and means 'to go forth as a soldier', or 'to join together for service'.

This term has also been applied to
the heavenly beings -

2 Chronicles 18:18 "Then Micaiah said,
“Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne,
and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left."

[Micaiah was a true
prophet of God, who resided in Samaria in the days of Jehoshaphat and Ahab]

Psalm 148:2 "Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!"

[A Psalm of praise to the
Lord from creation]

Luke 2:13-14 "And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “ Glory to God in the highest, And
on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

The term is also used of celestial
bodies -

Isaiah 34:4 "All the host of heaven shall be
dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host
shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit
falling from a fig tree."

[Spoken of God's
sovereignty and judgment of nations]

Isaiah 40:26 "Lift up your eyes on high, And
see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by
number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the
strength of His power;
Not one is missing."

[Isaiah records the
incomparable greatness of God and that He is beyond human counsel]

Thus, the God of Hosts is
given often in scripture to demonstrate that He is the origin of everything
in the heavens and the earth.

The strong emphasis in these
verses on the completion of all of God's creating, clearly refutes modern
evolutionary materialism, which seeks to explain the origin and development
of all things in terms of natural processes and laws innate to the universe.
Creation is complete, not continuing (if evolution takes place at all, it
would require continuing miraculous intervention in the present laws of
nature).

Seventh Day: With the summary of the previous
days stated, we are now introduced to the last day of this creative
narrative. Day seven of this narrative is introduced as a day of cessation
and rest. The word "rest" used here in verse two,
is from the Hebrew "Shavath" and means, 'to sit still'.

Blessed it: God blessed this seventh day in
three ways:

It became the
object of Divine favor.

It was to be a
day of blessing for His creation.

It was to be
invested with a permanence not found in the other day.

The record of this
blessing by God was as an example and revealed to His people thousands of
years later for their clear understanding of the illustration.

Sanctified it: God literally declared it holy!

This “hallowing” of every seventh
day was for man's benefit (Mark
2:27), and was
obviously intended as an illustration for a permanent human institution; for
the physical and spiritual need of all men for a weekly day of rest and
worship, in thankfulness for God's great gift of creation.

The Sabbath (literally
“rest”) day was incorporated in the Mosaic covenant with Israel

The age-long, worldwide
observance of the “week” is not contingent on the movements of the sun and
moon (like the day, the month and the year) but rather is mute testimony to
its establishment as a memorial of God's literal seven-day creation week.

Divine and Human
Sabbaths:

The word "Sabbath" comes
from the Hebrew "Shabbath" and means, 'to desist', 'cease', and
'rest'.

Divine Sabbath was:

Cessation from toil. A
discontinuance of work.

Holy Delight. Resting and
refreshing.

Beneficial Activity. Dormant nature
allowed true rest.

Continuous Duration. The blessing
of rest to continue and be perpetual.

Human
Sabbath was:

A Divine Institution.
Exodus 20:8;
Leviticus 14:30.

A
Sacred Character. Exodus 20:10; after the pattern of God.

A
Beneficial Design. Mark 2:27; Adapted to the need of man to rest and
refresh.

A
Permanent Obligation. A perpetual
ordinance of observation for Israel (Israel only!).

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."

God would once again engage in the
act of creation. This was prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah
65:17-19), and
would be fulfilled in the new heavens and earth established in the
righteousness of Jesus Christ (Hebrews
12:22-24; 2 Peter 3:13).
In this new creation, we would also be given a new day to mark the work of
God through Jesus Christ (Acts
20:7).

Summary:
After the perfection of the first six
days of creative work, God rested. This day of rest is blessed and
sanctified for illustrative purpose, and men are the beneficiaries of this
blessing; as a day of rest and reflection on our Creator is truly
refreshing.

_______________________________________________________

THE GENERATION OF CREATION:

Verses 4-7 are given here as a review of the creative days, before
we transition back into day six and look at some additional details of that
day. The word "generations" comes from the Hebrew, "Toledoth" and
means 'history' or 'generations'.

Text:

Genesis 2:4-7 "This is the history of
the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD
God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was
in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God
had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to
till the ground; 6
but a mist went up from the
earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LORD God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living being."

Lord God: In this review of the creative
process, or generations, we have the first mention of the Lord God. This is
a reference to Jehovah Elohim, which is illustrative of God as the
architect; the fullness of His Divine nature, and the multiplicity of His
Divine power.

In That Day: The reference "in that
day" is given to establish the first of the creative days. It will
be followed by a systematic set of "before" to show the
events that would follow the first day. Verse six and seven also include a "but",
and an "and"; to introduce additional events and the
necessity for them.

Before it Grew: This statement clearly teaches the
fact of a mature creation, or creation of apparent age. The first plants did
not grow from seeds, but were created full grown.

No Rain:
The ancient
hydrological (the study of the properties, distribution, and effects of
water) system, due to the absence of rain, being a consequence of the water
vapor above the firmament and the uniform temperature which it maintained
over the earth.

The system itself was
implemented in this history prior to the "plant of the field"
or the "herb of the field", to show that God had
prepared for the introduction of these.

Rain today is dependent
on the global circulation of the atmosphere, transporting water evaporated
from the ocean inland to condense and precipitate on the lands. This
circulation is driven by worldwide temperature differences in the atmosphere
and would be impossible with the global warmth sustained by the canopy.

Since there was not a
system for the hydrology of the earth (in the form of rain); the world that
existed then, prior to the flood and separation of the continents was
watered by a mist. The word "mist" is from the Hebrew "ade",
which means, 'a fog', 'vapor', or 'mist'. It refers merely to the local
daily cycle of evaporation and condensation occasioned by the day and night
temperature cycle.

Similarities to this on a
smaller scale exist in condensation and dew.

Dust of the Ground: Since there was not a man
to till the ground, God solved that problem with his creation (day six).
Man's body was formed out of the very home he was created to inhabit
(carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.). It was the same material plants and the
whole of animal life was created.

Breath of Life: The word "breath"
comes from the Hebrew "Nishma", and means, 'puff, blast', 'wind',
or 'breath of life'. All the creatures of God (air, and land), had this
breath - Genesis
7:21-22; however,
man's breath was imparted to him directly, rather than indirectly as in the
animals.

Living Soul: The word "living"
is from the Hebrew, "Chay" and means 'alive', fresh', or 'life';
while "being" is from the Hebrew, "Nephesh" and
means 'soul'. When we include this statement to the one made in the previous
chapter (Hebrew, "Tslelem Damuth" which meant 'image and
likeness'); we see the we have both the animal life spirit and the eternal
life spirit in the likeness of God.

This continues to advance
the superiority of man in comparison to the other creatures. More
importantly, it stands as testimony that evolution is dead wrong in stating
that we came from other animals. If that were true, it would not have been
necessary to give us our own "Nephesh", as the animals created
prior to us already had it.

Summary Points of
the Generations of Creation:

•
All of creation serves the
special creation (man) of God and is the perfect home for such.

•
All creatures are not the
same. This is the will of God. God obviously delights in variety,
necessity, and function.

•
No separate creature can be
anything other than its individual nature allows.

•
To be different than what God
has made us, is to be guilty of foolish and sinful discontent.

•
A creatures highest function
is to act in accordance with God's assigned nature.

•
Every creature, including man,
has a place.

•
Every creature, including man,
has his own work.

Ours is to reverently
worship God, thankfully receive our charge from creation, to be obedient to
the same Divine Word that created everything (obedience is the first duty of
the created), and to seek the approval of the Creator.